A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being is told through two perspectives:

We are first introduced to a 16-year-old transfer student named Nao Yasutani, who is uprooted from her home in the States and brought to Tokyo, Japan. As if a big move isn’t stressful enough, she has to juggle bullies at her new school, get adjusted to the different cultural customs, and deal with her suicidal dad. With her life falling apart in every way imaginable, Nao decides to end her life. But before she can do that, she decides to share stories about her 104-year-old great-grandmother, Jiko, in the pages of her diary.

The second narrative is that of a writer named Ruth who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. One day, she finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on a beach, and inside is Nao’s diary. Essentially, the book becomes an annotated work as Ruth writes little footnotes at the bottom of the pages, trying to figure out who Nao is and how, if possible, she can help her.

Nao’s voice is particularly perky and upbeat, contrasting with the sad nature of her story. Sometimes it was easier to view her as 12 as she came across very naive and kid-like. Her account was heart-wrenching, but it definitely made for an interesting and compelling read.

There were threads of magic realism laced throughout the novel, which made it harder to decipher fact from fiction.

There’s so much more I want to say about this novel; I think it may become one of my top books of the year. It certainly belongs in the historical fiction genre as it dives headfirst into a rich and complex family history. I would have given it 5 stars had it not been for this particular scene in the last half of the book that I found to be completely off-putting and unlike how I perceive Nao to behave.

♥♥♥♥

Please heed my warning that this book discusses several situations regarding abuse (physical, emotional, sexual.. you name it). There are bullies in every parts of the world, and the ones in Nao’s new school are among the absolute worst.

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

I had stumbled across Shirley Jackson when I was a sophomore in high school. The title story, The Lottery, was the first I had read from this author, and it was the first story that I began with when I started this collection. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still held my breath as the suspense built, my heart accelerating as I approached the ending. Jackson still manages to give me chills after so many years! I couldn’t wait to dive into the other 25 stories.

I wish I could say I was as enamored with the other stories as I was with The Lottery. While there were a few that I found to be unsettling, – The Witch and Charles were about exceptionally wicked children – and incredibly relevant to modern society – After You, My Dear Alphonse and Flower Garden tackled issues of racism – the rest left me bemused. Most of the tales were completely random and had a nonexistent plot. For example, one story was about a woman going to look at some used furniture to buy for her new home. She gets there, looks around, meets a fellow who is also perusing the furniture, then leaves empty-handed. Definitely unusual; not at all chilling as the back cover promised.

Reading this left me feeling a tiny bit deflated as I absolutely loved The Lottery and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I own another short story collection by her that contains 54 individual stories, and I’m hoping I’ll enjoy more than a few out of that one.

♥ ♥ ♥

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney

Right before her 30th birthday, cartoonist Ellen Forney gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. Adamant against using medications in fear of them interfering with her artistic ability to create, she endeavors to tackle life’s ups and downs on her own, unaware of the repercussions that could occur along the way.

Forney then takes inspiration from fellow artists like Sylvia Plath, Van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keeffe — all of whom had suffered from mood disorders — as well as researching deep into the mysteries of the mind in order to try to make sense of her own.

♥ ♥ ♥

I thought the memoir was honest and humorous. I found myself incredibly empathetic towards Forney in the later half of the book. Marbles is a wonderfully personal narrative into the depths of mental health disorders presented in stark black-and-white graphics.

YA because Y-Not?

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy — Willowdean knows she doesn’t have the perfect body or the prettiest smile, but that doesn’t stop her from entering the town’s Miss Blue Bonnet Beauty Pageant, hoping to show the world that she deserves to be on stage as much as any other girl that enters.

For a book centered on delivering a message on body positivity, sometimes there is more body-shaming than praise. Willowdean is sassy and sweet and is described as being ‘comfortable in her own skin’, but that doesn’t ring true throughout most of the book because she continually introduces herself as the ‘resident fat girl’ and deals with a lot of low self-esteem issues as well. Despite that, there have been parts where I find myself nodding and thinking, yes… that’s me. Like the time when Willowdean’s Aunt Lucy was giving her some advice:

“I’ve wasted a lot of time in my life. I’ve thought too much about what people will say or what they’re gonna think. And sometimes it’s over silly things like going to the grocery store or going to the post office. But there have been times when I really stopped myself from doing something special. All because I was scared someone might look at me and decide I wasn’t good enough…”

I have the exact same social anxiety/self-confidence issues as I’m sure so many others have to deal with everyday. I love the fact that these issues are being made aware and that Murphy gives tidbits of advice through wonderful characters that you wish were real.

I didn’t mind the little romance, despite the fact that it was maybe mildly toxic. Also, a good amount of Dolly Parton was thrown into the mix so I guess you can’t really complain.

★★★

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson — When Calamity came, it gave ordinary men and women superpowers. These people were called Epics, but instead of using their powers for the greater good, they became malicious villains, ruling different cities using brute force and fear. The worst of the Epics was one named Steelheart, who is said to be indestructible. But David has seen him bleed. And he wants to exact revenge on his father’s death.

There is so, so, so much praise for Sanderson. Being that this is my first dip into his work, I tried to push away any of the hype that has been associated with his books. The first half of the book was slow-going. There was a lot of meticulous planning and laying out the blueprint of the book, but I trucked on and discovered that the second half was completely plot driven, which I appreciated because once I was done with the book, all I could think of was, Wow. The minor kinks in the first part of the book dissipated from memory and I went onto Goodreads to add the sequel to my to-be-read pile.

That being said, it still has its flaws. David is a socially awkward character who half of the time didn’t seem to be all that serious so taking into account my annoyance with that particular character as well as the missteps in the first half of the book, I give Steelheart ★★★

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead — Miranda and Sal have been best friends since they were toddlers. They are inseparable. Until one day Sal gets punched by a kid for no apparent reason and stops talking to Miranda. Then, to make matters worse, a key to the apartment she lives with her mother goes missing and mysterious notes addressed to Miranda start appearing, saying things like ‘I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own’. It all leads Miranda to believe that only she can prevent a tragic death from happening.

Y’all, I must say that this is probably one of the best children’s books I’ve read in a long time. The events that played out in this book is incredibly thought out. Please read it. You will only understand if you read it. It will all make sense!!!

★★★★

The Age of Miracles by Karen T. Walker

I’ve been sitting here trying to come up with a cohesive summary of this book, but no such luck so here is the synopsis on the inside cover:

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life. As Julia adjusts the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

What seemed like a great speculative science fiction novel fell completely flat for me. Thompson focuses more on Julia’s struggles with the onset of puberty and her failing relationships with her friends than what was going on with the earth and its environment.

Character development was nowhere to be found and the ending left me skeptical. Overall, a very ‘meh’ book for me.

Stunning book design, though. That’s what sucked me in. Gotta stop doing that….

Books Read in 2015

1. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (#5) by J. K. Rowling
3. The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, #1) by Michael Buckley
4. The Cloud Searchers (Amulet, #3) by Kazu Kibuishi
5. The Last Council (Amulet, #4) by Kazu Kibuishi
6. Prince of the Elves (Amulet, #5) by Kazu Kibuishi
7. Paper Towns by John Green
8. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
9. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (#6) by J. K. Rowling
11. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
12. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
13. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
14. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
15. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
16. The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
17. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
18. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
19. The Unusual Suspects (The Sisters Grimm, #2) by Michael Buckley
20. The Problem Child (The Sisters Grimm, #3) by Michael Buckley
21. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
22. There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
23. Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, #4) by Michael Buckley
24. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
25. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney
26. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
27. Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
28. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

 

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Rating: ★★★★

A remote island + a rich billionaire + hired scientists + dinosaur DNA. What could possibly go wrong? Except, well, EVERYTHING.

Somehow this rich dude and his team of scientists got a hold of dinosaur DNA extracted from a fossil (I’m jealous, the only DNA I ever extracted was from a strawberry — all in the name of science, of course). So the rich guy, Hammond, decides to build an amusement park of sorts with these dinosaurs as the centerpiece of his attraction. He invites world-renowned paleontologist Alan Grant and his colleague Ellie Sattler along, as well as his own two grand-kids for this “educational” venture.

You can only imagine how that went.

Thoughts: One criticism that I have heard about the book was that the science portion took away from the adventure. This statement needs to be reevaluated because without the science-y parts, you wouldn’t get the adventure in the first place. Riddle me this: what parts are plot-driven? When the dinosaurs come into play. Oh, well how did the dinos get there? BECAUSE OF FUCKING SCIENCE.

I’ve also heard that Ian Malcolm’s chaos theory was exceptionally boring to read about. Yes, it went over my head, but no need to criticize something you don’t necessarily understand. Basically, I liked Malcolm, I had no problem with him, therefore I am defending him. The only character I did not care for was an 8-year-old. She was a complete brat.

I watched Jurassic Park again after reading the book. Syfy had a thing going where it played a marathon of Jurassic Park. There were definitely scenes that were both deleted from the book in the movie as well as additional scenes that didn’t happen in the book. Simply put, the film is maybe 75% of the book. One review from The Detroit News says that the book was “frighteningly real” and I would have to agree. I think I preferred the book over the film because reading it on your own makes it a whole lot more suspenseful.

There is a sequel called The Lost World. I bought it. I’ll be reading it.

 

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Rating: ★★★★

15-year-old Bee decides that Antarctica will be her family’s Christmas vacation destination this year as a reward  from her parents for earning high grades in school. She and her father Elgin are all geared up to go; no one notices that her wonderfully intelligent mother is about to undergo a severe mental breakdown. Her mom is Bernadette Fox: an aspiring architect who vanished from the art scene in order to raise a family. Bernadette suffers from agoraphobia; her closest friends are her daughter and husband. Her lonely lifestyle makes her an easy target for the other mothers; they think that her lack of involvement in the school PTA is worrying, that her disinterest will cause more harm to the school than good.

Overwhelmed by the thought of going away for 3 weeks on an entirely different continent and fed up with the troublesome mothers of Galer Street School, Bernadette disappears without a trace, leaving her family bereft and bewildered.

Bee then rakes through her mother’s emails, letters, and memos, anything to help her find Bernadette in order to bring her home.

Thoughts: I LOVE Bernadette Fox. Absolutely love her. She is wonderful, funny, so smart, and awfully misunderstood; I wanted to protect her at all costs.

The characters in here were sublime. I was empathetic towards Bernadette and loathsome towards Audrey, one of the moms from Galer Street, who took it upon herself to make Bernadette’s life a living hell (or at least a very annoying one).

To keep it short and simple, it was witty and fantastic and I want everybody to read it.

There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories

★★

I picked this up after having read too many books on doomed love. I wanted a book filled with happy romance and thought that this would resolve my conundrum. Alas, I should have paid attention to the title because this collection of short, love stories was anything but happy. From one-night stands to rushed courtships, these contemporary tales follow women who are out looking for love in all the wrong places.

Apparently, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya is one of Russia’s literary giants. She is well known for being a contemporary fiction writer and has even been compared to other big authors such as Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Poe.

I thought the first couple of stories had a clever twist at the end; then, halfway through I realized each story had the same monotonous trope that pretty much starts with “there once lived a _______ who ________”. These stories, they don’t stick with you; they’re not memorable, which makes it hard to give it a good review.

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

★★★★

This edition was published by HarperCollins, and it makes for a very stunning cover.

The book follows the story of Nella, an 18-year-old girl who is whisked away from her small home town to live with her husband, Johannes, who is a merchantman. Nella is overwhelmed and excited by Johannes’s proposal. She is ready to leave boring, little Assendelft and begin a life with her new husband.

To her dismay, she finds Johannes to be aloof and distant, and his sister, Marin, reluctant to let Nella into their home. The only friends Nella seems to have are the two servants, Otto and Cornelia, and her pet parakeet. To make his detachment up to her, Johannes buys her an unfurnished dollhouse, hoping Nella would find some use out of it while he is away on his business trips. Affronted, Nella pays no attention to the small cabinet… at first. Nevertheless, as time passes, she sets out to employ a miniaturist, someone who specializes in making small figurines for dollhouses such as these.

Nella begins receiving packages from the mysterious miniaturist of items that she didn’t order. At first, she thinks it was a mistake, but realization dawns on her when these small figurines mirror what is happening in real life.

Thoughts: 

The idea for the story is based on an actual Petronella (Nella) Oortman, a Dutch woman whose furnished miniature house is part of an Amsterdam museum.

The detail on the cover reflects the intricate writing Burton displays in this debut novel. I had started this book sometime in November 2014, but found it to be incredibly slow, and I didn’t really care for the protagonist all that much. That all changed when I picked it up at the end of May 2015. Somehow, I managed to read the remaining 300 pages in a couple of days! It was completely mesmerizing: the delicate language used, the surprises lurking around every corner, it was great. It made me jump back into the world of reading; I’d been without it for so long due to school.

It starts to become very plot-driven once you hit the climax of the novel. One criticism is that the book tries to make it seem like Nella grows a lot as a character. She’s very young and naive at the beginning of the novel, but I don’t think enough time was given to her to embrace this new life headed her way. I mean, you can’t possibly expect her to actually be okay with what’s going on, but it doesn’t shake the fact that her innocence made it unbearable to read.

I think for someone to really enjoy this book, you have to make time for it. Post-graduation, I found it easier to sit down and fully immerse myself into the story.